Before 1855

Native peoples inhabited the area around Puget Sound for many thousands of years.  There were important villages to the north and south, but Madrona was probably mainly a transit point between Lake Washington and the interior and Puget Sound.

Before white settlement, people from many parts of what is now Washington State probably walked, rode on horses or canoed to Leschi where they took a trail to a village at what is now Pioneer Square.  From the seashore,  they carried things like clams and from the lakeshore they caught salmon and trout.  People along Lake Washington were called the Hahchuahbsh or Lake People, taking their name from where they lived. They burned sections of the forest here every few years to encourage the berries they collected and to attract deer they hunted.

1855-1891

The first permanent settlers of European descent came to live in the forests.  In a series of agreements between local tribes and the federal and state governments after Washington statehood in 1889, native rights were relinquished, and settlers arrived in increasing numbers. After an 1856 attack on white settlers in Madrona/Leschi and the resulting hanging of Chief Leschi in 1858, the native presence ended. Much of Madrona/Denny Blaine was annexed to the city of Seattle. 

1891-1893

Old Madrona Trails Old Madrona Gazebo

J.D. Lowman’s land company simultaneously developed Madrona Lakeside Park and an electric trolley car line twisting through the “deep wild canyon” where Madrona Drive now runs.  Developers built a dance pavilion, bath houses, wooden swings, rustic benches and paths along the lake and through the wooded hillside. In 1892 a hotel and a refreshment stand were added to service the trolleys, and a wharf and warehouse with tracks for freight cars were built.

Old Madrona Hotel

Halfway House

1900-1910 – Madrona was a popular picnic destination during the summer and autumn.  Families rented lakeside cottages and enjoyed the swimming and other outdoor summer activities.

1903-1909 – Olmsted Brothers developed a system of parkways and pocket parks along Lake Washington from Bailey Peninsula (Seward Park) to the 1909 Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Expo at what is today the University of Washington. Their route was largely based on 25 miles of bicycle paths which had been constructed in 1892 by George F Cotterill, Assistant City Engineer and Chairman of the Paths Committee of the Queen City Good Roads Club.

Plat Map

1908 – The city-owned Seattle Electric Company bought the Madrona Park and trolley line, including the trolley wharf and warehouse just south of Spring Street. The Park Board developed a boulevard through Madrona, using a pile trestle for the roadway, which curved outward along the shoreline to avoid the hotel and refreshment stand at the foot of the hill.  The Park Board took over management of the hotel, boat house and dock, probably anticipating service to the nearby upcoming Expo.

1909 – Lake Washington steamboats were consolidated under Captain John R. Anderson in the Lake Washington Steamboat Company, providing 15-minute service between Leschi, Madrona and Madison Park and the Expo Fairgrounds at today’s UW.  These 14 steamers were known as the “Mosquito Fleet”.

1910-1912 – Hotel removed. Lake frontage reclaimed by fill. Lakeside Avenue changed to Blaine Boulevard and relocated along the shoreline, approximately where the trestle had been before.

1915-1916 – Two tennis courts were built.

1916 – Lowering of the lake level by seven feet caused new fill to be sloped downward and extended. Timber bulkhead along the shoreline was replaced in part with beach steps and concrete sea wall, which was extended to the north 25 years later to clean up the ragged waterfront along the picnic meadow.

1919 – Frame bathhouse built (now Madrona Dance Theater) and Blaine Boulevard completed along the Madrona Beach shoreline.

1925 – Boulevard relocated along base of the hill.

1928 – The “grand boulevard” from Seward Park to the Montlake Bridge renamed Lake Washington Boulevard.

1932 – WPA replaced the comfort station built in 1911.  The rustic shelters and benches on the park slope had disappeared, as had some of the less-frequently-used paths.  WPA did some path restoration and cleaning of underbrush.

1948 – The Parks Department planned a sailboat moorage adjacent to Madrona Beach, but community protest resulted in its being relocated to Leschi Park.

1959 – Concession stand and comfort station combined in one new building.

1996-1997 – Friends of Madrona Woods formed.

Valuable sources of Information:
    The Electric Trolley by Junius Rochester
    Seattle 1900-1920 by Richard C. Berner
    Seattle Now & Then by Paul Dorpat
    The Lake Washington Story by Lucille McDonald
    The Don Sherwood Files